Over the past 2 years I've met 3 older people who had coin collections they wanted to sell. Not the entire collection at once, but bits and pieces. Has anyone else had similar experiences? While I'm always looking for nice coins to add to my collection, if there is a little room for money to be made on a few coins, that's cool too. While I though looking at someones collection would be a fun experience, it was anything but. If you pulled any coin out of my collection, even if I didn't want to sell it, I could set a price in under 15 seconds. But the 3 people I met where the polar opposite. "I don't know a price, I would have to look in a book". Although I have a great deal of patience, I would at least expect a person to have a ball park price of what they want for a coin, and then go from there. If you need a few minutes to look in your price guide, I can wait. But...maybe I'm taking the wrong approach. Maybe I should be the one with the price guide? Does anyone have any pointers for looking at a collection someone has for sale?
Bring a price guide with you if you know there are a bunch of coins that you might not be familiar with and then just be honest. I've been lucky enough to purchase larger lots of coins - and while none of them have resulted in me making a phenominal deal - we both always seem satisfied. Sometimes I might overpay for some stuff, and sometimes underpay but as long as both parties are happy - so be it. If you have an idea of the price or what you would be willing to pay - throw it out there. Often times I say - I'm not sure what this coin is worth but based on the condition - I'd pay XX. With everyone having computers these days - if you really wanted to you could carry a laptop or smart phone and use numismedia or some other place to get an idea. If the collection didn't belong to the person or they've had the coins for decades and don't know prices - they may be looking for your to offer some insight as to the worth. Personally I don't subscribe to the belief that sellers should know what they have or the buyer has the right to rip them off. If I know a coin is worth 500 bucks, I'm not going to offer 50 bucks just because I think I can get away with it. I've had a few instances where I told the person I couldn't buy certain coins because they were out of my league. In 2 of those cases, I'm nearly positive I could have purchased those coins for peanuts compared to the true value - but 1) I have to sleep at night and 2) that could be my family member/grandparent getting scammed and that would **** me off.
I would suggest offering the price you want to them instead of soliciting a price. You could also make a list of the coins you are interested in and the price you want to pay and leave it with them to look, it may lower the stress for them of having to make an on the spot decision.
Make an offer on what they want to sell. If they sell, fine. If not, walk away but leave your card. You can play their game all day long. When they are ready to be serious, they'll call you.
Ya I played their game today. Guy was supposed to return my call but never did, called again and his wife answer, said he would be home soon and give me a ring, this was 4 hours ago. IDK what price magazine he had, it was much higher than my 2012 redbook.
Good post! Speaking of getting scammed, he had a "bullion buyer" offer him 14 dollars each for the silver dollars he had. Lol, heck my friend pays 24 each for them.
